SNOOKER players from the same Blackburn club are leading the 'Life of Rileys' after dominating a regional tournament for the past two years.

James Brookens, of Rileys Snooker Club, won the Blackburn with Darwen small tables league individual final at the Wilpshire Hotel after falling at the final hurdle last time round.

James, 29, beat fellow club member Pete Arkwright 4-0 in the final, but admitted that the scoreline wasn't a fair reflection of the contest: "The scoreline certainly flattered me," he said. "I've played a number of sessions with Pete at the club and they've always been very close run things between us.

"I won a couple of frames on the black, so it wasn't a one-sided final by any means. I made a break of about 40 in the first frame and that was my highest break of the final

"We were both very nervous beforehand and all four frames were very scrappy. We're both used to playing on full size tables, so we struggled for position and found break building hard.

"Pete's a great player and has been playing a consistently high standard of snooker all season. He trailed 2-0 in one of the earlier rounds of the competition and produced some great form to turn things around, including an 80 break."

James first picked up a cue back in the '80s and was inspired by after watching the then Blackburn-based Dennis Taylor rise to become world champion. He has played in the small tables league for just two seasons and only started playing at Rileys last summer.

There are 20 teams from all over East Lancashire who play in the league, with just two coming from the Mincing Lane club.

Incredibly, five Rileys-based players made it through to the quarter-finals of the individual competition, three of which James was drawn to play on his way to the title!

"I played against a team-mate in the quarter-final, semi-final and of course in the final itself - it was very strange," he added.

"I certainly can't take all the credit for our success, because not only did we win the singles event, but we also won the doubles and the overall league title.

"Unfortunately we were runners-up in the team knock-out competition, which prevented us from taking a clean sweep of the honours.

"The only thing I can put it down to is the fact that we all get on extremely well. We have a lot of good banter between us and we play and practice a lot together.

"In every frame that I played, all of the lads would be sat around the table watching and lending their support

"So there's always a good atmosphere when we play. There's never just one man and his dog stood watching!"

Remarkably, James was runner-up in last year's final, losing out 4-1 to Darren Heggie - the manager at Rileys - again at the Wilpshire Hotel.

"I got absolutely battered and had to walk away with the runners-up silver plate. Darren and I grew up together and I've played snooker with him all my life, so there were no hard feelings - well, not too many anyway!"